The Needs Of The Many
by Commander Cody CC-2224
Summary: A starship captain, a logical science officer, and a sentimental chief medical officer engage in a philosophical discussion over a rather interesting humanitarian aspect of the last stages of the video game "Fable II".


_**The Needs of the Many – A Star Trek 2009 Fanfic**_

**Written By: **_**Commander Cody CC-2224**_

Summary: A starship captain, a logical science officer, and a sentimental chief medical officer engage in a philosophical discussion over a humanitarian aspect of the last stages of Fable II.

* * *

Starfleet Academy, San Francisco, U.S.A.

After the events of the _Star Trek_ movie…

It was shore leave for the crew of the _U.S.S. Enterprise_. In a private lounge of one of the buildings of Starfleet Academy, young Science Officer Spock was playing through the last stage of a fairly antiquated game of Fable II on the most recent version of Xbox 360. His nimble Vulcan fingers manipulated the remote cordless Xbox controller in a masterly manner, and he was able to keep in control the vibrations that were part and parcel of the simulated game experience. The game machine was connected to a Hi-Def Vizio television screen, which had several times the resolution capabilities as that of a conventional LCD set. And the view was incredible.

Spock was busy with the game when Capt. Kirk and Dr. McCoy, known as Bones, stepped into the lounge.

"Last stages of Fable II, Spock, isn't it?" Kirk asked.

"Yes," Spock answered, his mind focused mostly on the game-play.

"Hmm…mighty interesting," remarked Bones.

The part where the character villain, Lucien, was finally defeated by the Hero had come and gone. Lucien was intent on using the Spire, the magical tower capable of great power for great good or great evil, to change reality to suit his whims. Another main character, Theresa, appeared in the middle of the floor. She told the main character, the hero Sparrow, that the Spire could be used to grant him one out of three wishes.

Sacrifice.

Love.

Wealth.

Spock knew pretty much what was at stake here. With Sacrifice, the Hero would have the capability of reviving the fallen workers who died in the building of the Spire. In return the Hero would only receive the gratitude of Albion in the form of a statue erected in the midst of Bowerstone Old Town, Albion's central metropolitan hub. With Love, the hero would be bale to revive his family members, including his beloved dog, but the fallen Spire workers would remain dead; unless of course, belief in an afterlife was prevalent. With Wealth, the Hero would have to sacrifice family, friends, kin, and everyone else for the sake of insurmountable wealth.

The choice was his; that was, for Spock, whilst playing the game.

Spock immediately chose Sacrifice. Bones was in a mixture of amazement and mortification by the fact that Spock made such a choice so easily, without as much as a second thought in his Vulcan mind. Kirk was very much surprised as well.

"Spock, how is it that you make such a choice so easily, without so much as a second thought in your Vulcan mind?" asked Bones.

"It was…logical," Spock replied coolly.

"Logical, my ass. What about the character's family? Does the character's family, friends, and kin get to revive?"

"Apparently not. The game's parameters do not allow for the perfect world of love and sacrifice to yield ideal results. In here, it is either one or the other."

"This is frickin' ridiculous!" Bones protested indignantly. "Haven't you got a heart within yourself?"

"I'd choose the first of the latter if I were him," said Kirk.

"Logic clearly dictates that the needs o the many outweigh the needs of the few," said Spock.

"Or the one," Kirk added. "Have you saved that part of the game?"

"Apparently, that part is auto-saved," answered Spock.

"Good," said Kirk. "Because I want to try out the other choice, which is Love."

Spock sighed. "I can never comprehend the human desire to place their closest friends and kin ahead of the many," he remarked, as he handed the Xbox controller to Kirk.

"That's because you're not fully human, Spock," said Bones.

"Yet despite all that you can't help getting fully human all the time," put in Kirk.

Spock, as usual, became miffed over any implication of human-ness, given some of the prejudices that humans were flawed and oftentimes sought their heart's desires, even if they were illogical, in contrast to the Vulcans, who were flawless in the art of logic. But as the discussion was much too interesting he decided to get over it for the time being.

Kirk, as with any other avid gamer, got immersed in the game-play as he played through the last part. However, he started having second thoughts. Kirk read through the summaries, and opened his ears to Theresa's narratives.

"Make a wish," said the Theresa character. "But choose wisely. For it will affect all of Albion."

A card featuring the image of a grand and glorious giant statue made its appearance headlong on the Vizio television screen.

"Sacrifice. You may choose to revive all those who died in the Spire's making. It is a selfless gift. Your only reward will be the gratitude of Albion."

The next card to make its grand appearance had a jeweled heart shape.

"Love. Those dearest to you, even your faithful dog, will be restored to life. But their lives come at the cost of the countless innocents who died in building the Spire."

The third and last card displayed depicted a gilded treasure box with glittering gold pieces.

"Or wealth. More gold than you can imagine, to spend on whatever pleases you. But any you loved and all the Spire's prisoners will remain dead, and will not witness your newfound affluence."

"What will you choose?"

Kirk gave the matter much thought.

"Your call, Captain," said Bones. "You can revive those closest to you at the expense of others, or you can revive the others at the expense of those closest to you."

"What about the latter?" Kirk asked Bones curiously.

"Good God, man!" exclaimed Bones in indignation. "Have you gone mad? Are you so damn selfish?"

"Right, right, I get your point, Bones," Kirk answered in a hurry, not wanting to hear another lecture about morality from his chief medical officer.

"'Indeed, wealthy people who have holders of powerful positions, even more than other people, seem to need friends,'" Bones added, quoting Aristotle.

"I might have had the gall to take Spock's logical choice," said Kirk. "And receive the gratitude of the many. However, that'll mean I'll have to go through life deprived of my closest kin. Torturous for a man who has known deprivation of his loved ones for a long time in the midst of his life."

"That cannot be denied," said Spock. "However, the hero will have greater prospects of finding a life partner and gaining new friends."

"What?" Kirk spat out loudly. As if Spock thought that finding new friends was an easy task after losing the ones he knew the most.

"You green-blooded hobgoblin," Bones protested to Spock. "You think loved ones are just…replaceable _things_?"

"The gratitude of the many will increase the Hero's prospects of finding a life partner and settling down," said Spock coolly. "And gaining new friends to replace the ones he lost."

"Try to imagine having a wife and children, Spock," said Kirk. "Then you'll know what I mean here. Besides, your viewpoint is collectivist, and I'm an individualist. And I, being the individualist, will make a choice to favor those closest to me. And as for the Spire workers? I don't know them personally, and they don't know me personally. So where's _my_ writ that I've got to put aside the lives of my loved ones to the lives of the Spire workers?"

Without another word, Kirk clicked the icon of Love.

"There. I've made my choice," he said finally

"The town will never thank you for this." said Spock. "Had you chosen a lesser good over the greater good, you would not have deprived yourself of a greater good at the cost of lesser good."

"Who cares about the greater good?" Kirk challenged. "At least I have my loved ones back. Besides, I don't think I'll ever find satisfaction with achieving something as distant and impersonal as the greater good." As with any other human being, Kirk felt that the gratitude for the many would die down eventually and be forgotten forever, if not right away, depending on the level of heroism exhibited in his actions.

"But then your loved ones will die eventually," Spock informed Kirk. "And if you manage to outlive them, you'll once again feel the same pain you felt when you knew your deprivation. So why bother?"

"My personal enjoyment," Kirk answered half-humorously, with a tinge of determination.

"A man can't do without close friends in the course of his life," says Bones. "Why don't you go read Aristotle's _Nichomachean Ethics_? That'll answer your question by a tad degree and clear your Vulcan mind a bit on the human stuff."

Bones threw the book to Spock, and Spock caught it with his right hand. Spock then flipped through the antiquated, hard-bound book with its gilded title letters glittering in the fluorescent lighting. Of particular interest was the eighth book of the _Ethics_, chapter one and chapter twelve.

After browsing through those chapters, Spock snapped the book shut and resumed the discussion.

"But would the character not have much difficulty in seeking friends if he chose to bring the Spire workers back to life, thus precipitating the gratitude of the townsfolk, than if he were to sacrifice the Spire workers for his previous but much-beloved kin?"

"I suppose that's possible," agreed Bones half-heartedly. "But think about it Spock. The character has just made a voyage into some sort of utopian world, where it has everything that he had dreamed of having. And just when he has to make a return trip back to reality, he can never get over the visions of what would have been if it wasn't for that villain Lucien. _That's_ the psychological aspect of what the hero is experiencing after that three-choice event dilemma."

Spock faced Kirk. "You do remember, Captain, that your father sacrificed his life to save others on board the _U.S.S. Kelvin_."

"That's because my mother was among the 800 rescued crew, Spock," replied Kirk. "He loved my mother. And me. Which was why he was motivated to keep us living."

"But assuming that your mother wasn't on board the _U.S.S. Kelvin_,…"

"He probably would have little inclination to rescue the others. Or…he would rescue the others, but in the same devoted manner as he did when my mother was present, just because it's the duty of a Starfleet officer."

"Indeed, Captain. A Starfleet officer would be duty-bound to salvage the many and sacrifice a few. No situation in life is free of sacrifice."

"But have you ever considered doing something like that in the manner of a mindless automaton?" asked Bones. "Like for example, a human robot doing something like that because it was programmed to do so." Bones could seem to recall his watching the antiquated 21st century movie _I Robot_.

"What are you saying?" Spock asked rather curiously.

"I'm saying that sometimes, laying down one's life for the many is not necessarily going to be done out of genuine love for one's fellow men," replied Bones. "It'll be done…just out of trying to "feel good" about oneself; or to gain a standing ovation from the crowd, or just plain show-off. If one manages to survive."

"Possibly, but nearly unlikely," says Kirk.

"I want to have a look at the results of each of the choices, if that's possible," said Bones.

Kirk handed Bones the Xbox controller, and Bones browsed through the results. The results displayed as followed:

Sacrifice – The Needs of the Many has sacrificed loved ones so that many more will live.

Love – The Needs of the Few has condemned thousands to die so that loved ones might live.

Wealth – The Needs of the One has condemned thousands to death for nothing but gold.

"Devotion to one's fellow man would be a necessary component for this circumstance to happen," declared Spock, as he viewed the next set of results on the computer screen in a studious manner. A letter from the character Rose, and an invitation to return back to Bowerstone Old Town to visit his family once again. "I think…that satisfaction for the needs of the one would be the logical choice for the one…given the exceptional and limitless monetary wealth that is at stake."

"But not the human thing for the one," put in Bones right away.

"Spock, it disturbs me that I'm inclined to agree with my fellow doctor," Kirk concurred.

"Perhaps not," said Spock. "I would conclude, however, that between the two other choices, Love and Sacrifice, neither are bad, but one is better than the other. Both of them would depend on the individual's attitude."

* * *

I haven't played Fable II as far as the ending, though based on some game guides I've read, I seem to get an idea as to what's at stake at the ending of the game story. I've also watched brief video clips from on the Fable II ending portion.

Please review. Your opinions on the matter will be greatly appreciated.


End file.
